EBU Youth Capacity-Building Seminar

"Harnessing New ICTs as a means to ease the job inclusion of visually impaired youth" 6-8 November 2009, Bratislava (Slovakia)

(With the contribution of the Community Programme For Employment And Social Solidarity - PROGRESS)

It is a challenge to give a faithful description of the situation for visually impaired youth in the labour market. There are several reasons for this, but central to the issue is the lack of reliable statistics. Very few countries have statistics specifically depicting the situation of the visually impaired, and aggregated statistics for Europe are difficult in most fields because of the variety of definitions used in the different countries.

However, there are number of reports showing parts of the puzzle, and there is a large amount of experiences and practical knowledge of how to better the situation, which the lack of statistics cannot obscure the seriousness off. There are good reasons to assume that approximately only a forth of visually impaired people in the economically active age span have a job in Europe, and even the richest and most advanced welfare states of Europe have very low figures on employment for this group.

Addresses and presentations

Opening session

• Address by Branislav Mamojka in audio (MP3) format or .rtf format
  
• Address by Markus Wolf in audio (MP3) only
• Address by Jolana Javorková in audio (MP3) format or rtf format
  
• Address by Daniel Schmidt audio (MP3) only
• Address by Miroslav Mikolášik in audio (MP3) format or .rtf format
  
• Address by Oeystein Fylling audio (MP3) only

Session I

• "The Role of the State: Has It a Future?" by Fred Reid
  
• "The connected society and the employment of blind and partially sighted young people" by Michael Townsend, the presentation and source material
  

Workshop session

• "European volunteering projects for and with young visually impaired people" by Loredana Dicsi Presentation (in PPT) and questions (.doc)
  
• "Accessibility of job websites" by Jennifer Bottoms and Wilco Fiers, presentation and questions
  
• "Job-seeking good practice" by Ulrika Norélius presentation and questions
  

Session II

• "Getting independent using GPS navigation by persons with VI"  by Peter Lecký
• "Steps towards enhanced accessibility of computers and documents" by Bart Simons

Session III

• "The PASSEMPLOI project" by Céline Chabot
• "The way to employment" by Gry Berg
  
• "ICC - International Camps on Communication & Computers" by Andrea Petz (doc only)
• European project corner
  

Closing session

• Report by Loredana Dicsi (doc only)
• Report by Jennifer Bottoms and Wilco Fiers
• Report by Ulrika Norélius (doc only)
• Reports of the rapporteurs (mp3 only)
• Closing address

Read the Final Report.

See photos from the seminar